Command LIVE – Aegean in Flames is the newest LIVE scenario for Command: Modern Operations, depicting a fictional scenario where new tensions between Greece and Turkey escalate to a point of no-return amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

KEY FEATURES

Playable as Greece (main side) and Turkey (opponent force)

Vast Theater of Operations covering the whole Eastern Mediterranean from Crete to the shores of Lebanon

The Z490 board I have the privilege to introduce is the ASRock Z490 Velocita. The widely successful Phantom Gaming line is back, and with a new member. ASRock’s Phantom Gaming family of motherboards was introduced with the Z390 platform not much more than a year ago. The product line features black, red, and gray styling, 2.5 Gb/s LAN, and an emphasis on performance. This newest member of the Phantom Gaming family is no exception, even the name “Velocita” translates to “speed.”

In our first of four upper-midrange Z490 motherboard review, we take a close look at the Gigabyte Z490 Aorus Master to see what sets it apart from the competition around this price point. The $389.99 Gigabyte board is pointed squarely at the enthusiast and gaming markets, and is priced about $130 higher than the ASRock Z490 PG Velocita, the first Z490 board we reviewed.

Meet the MSI Z490 UNIFY, a new series targeted to be a high-end solution. Interesting to see that this is an RGB-less all-black design. Priced at 299 USD, it comes with AX WIFI and has a 2.5 Gbps ethernet jack and a 16-phase power design. And that makes it one of the cheapest enthusiast-class boards with 16 CPU phases backed by 90A power stages.

Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

Close Combat: The Longest Day is out now on Steam. Revive the first and most crucial days of Operation Overlord, from the first steps on the beaches of Normandy to Carentan and Carpiquet (and more).

This version benefits of many improvements and changes made specifically for this release, including new setting available for HD resolutions and it doesn’t require to run in windowed mode in Win 8/10 anymore!

To celebrate this important event, we have created a Close Combat Collection Bundle (The Bloody First, Gateway to Caen, Panthers in the Fog, Last Stand Arnhem, Wacht am Rhen, Close Combat: The Longest Day) at 30% off! Check it out!

Important note for Matrix users. Close Combat: The Longest Day Matrix version will need to be uninstalled and installed again to get the improvements working.

SEGA and Creative Assembly announce A Total War Saga: TROY will launch exclusively on the Epic Games Store on August 13th. They also reveal the historical strategy game will be free to keep for all who claim their copy within the first 24 hours of release. There are details on the game in the this FAQ, which says the game will come to Steam in summer 2021. In response to concerns expressed about the exclusivity, they tweet that they have no plans for future Epic exclusives: “We currently have no plans for any future games to be Epic exclusives. We do want to be more platform agnostic moving forward, and we would like future games to be available on the Epic Games Store, but that’s in addition to being available on other platforms such as Steam.” Here’s a new trailer and here’s the news:

Sega Europe Ltd. and The Creative Assembly Ltd today announced that A Total War Saga: TROY™ will launch exclusively via the Epic Games Store on August 13, 2020, free to keep for players who download within the first 24 hours.

Using Total War’s BAFTA award-winning marriage of grand turn-based strategy and spectacular real-time battles, A Total War Saga: TROY™ plunges players into the legendary Bronze-Age conflict of the Trojan War, where they assume the roles of Achilles, Hector, and many other legendary heroes as they fight to defend the great city of Troy… or raze it to the ground.

“Thanks to Epic, we’re able to offer a Total War title for free on its launch day. It’s a hugely exciting thing for us to be able to do for our players,” says Tim Heaton, Chief Studios Officer at Sega Europe Ltd. “Not only does this mean that we can bring the tales and legends of TROY to a wide audience through Epic’s massive platform, but it also means new players will get to try Total War for the first time, experiencing the unique gameplay that the series is famous for.”

Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

The resurrected MicroProse announces plans to resurrect one of their franchises, saying a new version of the Mighty Eighth is in the works. This World War II bomber game will support virtual reality as well as non-VR gameplay. This will allow you to serve as part of the 10-player crew of a B-17 or B-24 along with live or AI crewmates. They offer screenshots of the interior of plane models and concept art, but no projected release date. You can sign up to stay updated on the project through. Here are the details they do provide:

We are honored to announce to you, our fans, that MicroProse is working on a brand new The Mighty Eight title for Virtual Reality.

The Mighty Eighth will be a VR-first project (but also playable with no VR enabled) in which you will be able to play with 9 other friends (or AI crew) as you work together to survive the war and accomplish your missions.

Drop those bombs on the right spot, guide your crew through long drawn out day, or the dark, moonless nights, keep your airplane in touch with the rest of the squadron and HQ as you monitor radios and communications. Defend your Flying Fortress by keeping those enemy fighters away from you and your squadron mates. Pilot or co-pilot this beast under a massive amount of stress – and enemy fire, but don’t drop out of formation or you’re a sitting duck.

The new Mighty Eighth is not just a game. It’s an experience from a different time where young men grew faster than they should and saw things no man should see. And YOU will be put right in the middle of the action.

AMD on Tuesday re-released its Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.4.2 graphics drivers as a WHQL-signed driver. The company hasn’t released a driver update since April 21 (the same 20.4.2 as a beta). With no new AAA game releases, there probably wasn’t much AMD could do. Then again, 20.4.2 beta came with a long list of “known issues” (new issues identified by AMD that needed to be solved), which could have been fixed in the last 35 days or so. The WHQL is identical to the beta. It comes with optimization for Gears Tactics and Predator: Hunting Grounds, and fixes a handful of issues.